The 2004 Election
Has One Issue:
The War on Terror

By

Daniel Henninger

Updated May 21, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

The Abu Ghraib prison story makes one thing clear: The war against global terror should be the paramount issue on which George Bush and John Kerry contest the 2004 American presidential election. Nothing else is remotely close. Jobs, the economy, taxes -- it's all suddenly background noise.

The reactions to Abu Ghraib in the United States, coming on the heels of the 9/11 Commission hearings, have shown there are important issues in the war on terror that need to be settled. And only a presidential election can settle them....